In past years, the UK Government has undertaken substantial assessments of each multilateral’s effectiveness to inform UK funding decisions. In this blog, we explore how these major assessments of Value for Money (VfM) affected the UK’s multilateral aid allocation. To do this, we’ve accessed previously un-published data from the UK’s 2011 Multilateral Aid Review (MAR) and the subsequent 2016 Multilateral Development Review (MDR).
This note argues that the United Kingdom (UK), working within old and new coalitions, should take a more strategic approach to the aims and funding of a leading cluster of major multilateral funding institutions. It sets out the UK’s role within multilaterals, the key reform issues and how to treat multilaterals as a system, before highlighting four target areas for a more ambitious UK role.